Toy.



E. P LEHMANN TOY.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT,19, i911.

3 91,51 4. I Patented Feb. 27, 1-912.

ERNST PAUL LEHMANN, OE BRANDENBURG-ON-THE-HAVED, GERMANY.

TOY.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Patented Feb. 27, 1312.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNST PAUL Lum- MANN, subject of the King ofPrussia, res1ding at No.6 Plaucrstrasse, Brandenburg-onthe-Havel, Prussia, Germany, have'invented new and useful Improvements in Toys, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in toys, and particularly in that class of toys,

in which a human or animal figure carried by an upright pin or rod is alternately lifted and lowered by mechanism contained in a box, through the cover of whichthe said figure, the lifting and lowering'movem'ents i of said figure causing the feetto strike upon the cover of the boxand the legs to turn .in their joints, whereby the said figure .is made to perform a kind of dance. Toys of this class are known and have been used before.

The improvements of my invention have i the main purpose to vary at the will of the operator the dancing movements of the figure imparted to the same by mechanical means, i. c. to temporarily retard or stop said movements, whereby a certain rhythm of the dance may be obtained, and the said rhythm may be varied by the operator as desired. In mechanical toys of this class the movements of the toy-figure have a general uniform character owing to the continuous rotating motion of the driving mecha' nism, which, generally, consists of a spring driven set of gear-wheels, and for this reason children soon become tired of the'toy, particularly because they cannot interfere in the performance of the dance. In the toy hereinafter described such manual interference is obtained by a brake to be 0perated by hand in any suitable'and desired degree, enabling the operator to retard the.

speed of motion from the slightest degree up to a full stop at any desired moment of the performance, and to accelerate the speed again at will and at any moment, up to the full original speed of motion. The operator, knowing the rhythm of the dance by heart, applies and releases the brake accordingto said rhythm and, thereby, causes the figure gear-wheel f meshin cured to a shaft 7' w ich carries awheel pmitte 4 "and wheel p carried by the same. When ro- Application filed September is, 1911. Sean 'm. 556,;77.

to perform any dance accordin to its special rhythm of motion. The toy, ereby, 1s not merely a mechanical-one, but requires some skill or knowledge of musical rhythm for its true performance, still, the'toy may equally be used to work without any manual interference or rhythm, and in this case, the

performance of the dance will be uniform according to the continuous rotary motion of the driving shaft.

stood, I have illustrated the same in the accompanying drawings, in which: supporting rod projects upward and which serves as a. platform for the feet of the .Figure 1 is a horizontal section drawn on line 11 of Fig; 2, disclosing the driving mechanism and showing the brake-mechanism in plan;iFig. 2 is a vertical section so To make mvinvention properly underdrawn on line 22 or Fig. 1, disclosing the driving gear. in side-elevation, with the toyfigure supported by the vertical rod'in' place. Fig. 3 is a detail of the toy-figure, disclosing the mode of Sn porting the same by the vertical rod, and" 1g. 4 is a horizontal section drawn on line 3-3 of Fig. 3.

Within a box d, of any suitable shape a driving mechanism is secured, which may consist, as shown, of'a coiled wire-spring s wound up upon a shaft 6, provided with a handle outside of the box and carrying a into a pinion 7:: se-

With any suitable number of lifting arms or cams projecting from the periphery of said wheel 32. An intermediate train of wheels, such as m, n, o,' loosely mounted on their shafts serve to retard the motion trans d from the gear-wheel f to the shaft 7' tating, the arms of said wheel 1; successively strike from below against a wheel 9, secured to the vertical rod 11 which carries the toyfigure b,said rod being guided within holes of a cross-bar z and another'crosssbarr pro vided, respectively, in the lower and up er part of the box d, and a third registering hole in the cover a of the box d. By the impulsions of the arms of wheel 79 striking against the lower face of the wheel or disk g, the said rod (1 is alternately thrown up and falls back again by its own gravity,

in' the said front wall, but the f1ilcrummight as well be located inside oroutside of the box. The inside arm of said lever g has a recess to engagea portion of the periphery of the gear-wheel f, and astay a; may preferably be arranged witl-in said recess, to engage between the teeth of said gear wheel 7 and stop its motion. The inner or recessed arm of said lever g exceeds in'weight the outer arm and by this means the normal position of the lever will be that shown in Fig.

2, in which motion is stopped or locked by the said lever g. On pressing down the out-' side arm of said lever g, the inside arm will be raised. and lifted out of engagement with the gear-wheel f, thus allowing free play to the driving mechanism. Asecond lever 71,

lever in may he made to engage said hook, whereby the lockinglever y will be'kept in is. arranged below the locking lever g, and the said second or brake lever It, may be equally fulcrumed within a slot or recess of, the front wall of the box. This brake-lever k, is normally out of engagement with the gear-wheel f, or only slightly touching the same without retarding the. motion; but on raising the outward arm of said brake-lever it, its inside arm will be caused to bear against said "ear-wheel retarding its motion in due proportion to the upward pressure applied to the outer arm of said lever h.

In performing the lay the operator, having wound up the rivin spring bythe handle of shaft e, starts the motion of the train of wheels and thereby causes the toy figure to perform a jumping or dancing mo-- tion, as soon as the lever g is raised out of engagement with the gear-wheel While exerting a slight downward pressure upon the outer arm of the lever g with one fin er, another finger may be employed to simu taneously exert a sli ht upward pressure upon the underside of t e brake-lever h, whereby its inner arm will be made to brake or re-' tard the gear-wheel f in due proportion to the pressure applied, which may be so strong as to stop the motion for a while. By varying the pressure applied to' the brake-lever h, at suitable intervals, the rhythm of the dance may be obtained at will. A hook t may be pivoted to the looking lever g and the outer end of the brakethe position to leave free motion to the gearwheel 1', While, at the same time, the brakelever his retained in a position apart from or only slightly touching the gear-wheel f, without bra-kingthe same. The performance, in'this case, willgo on continuously and without any rhythm through manual interference.

The frame u, supporting the legs of the toy-figure is suspended within the body b of the toy-figure, as shown in Fig. 3, and the suspending 'stay or strap '0 has a socket -w formed to it, which fits to the upper end of the supporting rod 0. Ifit'be desired to prevent the toy-figure b, from turning on its rod while dancing, the hole of the socket a may be formed with a slit or slits, or the said hole may be of angular shape, and the top end of the rod a, may be shaped to correspond to the shape of the socket-hole. .A. collar adjustable on the rod (1, near its up per end, serves to adjust the toy-figureb on the rod a at a distance more or less apart from the platform or cover 0 of the box d,

and by this means the feet of the figure b may be caused to strike the platform with more or less vigor in the fell of the rod a,

succeeding each throwing up of the same.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a' toy, the combination with driving driving mechanism, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a toy, the combination with driving mechanism and a rod supporting a tey-figure to which a reciprocating motion in the vertical direction is imparted by said driv ing mechanism, of a braking device operated by hand, adapted to temporarily stop,

retard or restore the normal speed of the driving mechanism, and a. locking device ada ted to be operated by hand simultaneous y with the braking devioe,'substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a toy, the combination, with driving mechanism and a rod supporting a toy-figure to which a reciprocating motion in the vertical'direction is imparted by ssiiddriving mechanism, of a braking lever adapted to be operated by hand, a locking lever adapted to be operated by hand, and means to simultaneously make inoperative the brake-lever and the locking-lever, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a toy, the combination with a box. of driving mechanism located therein, a rod adjustably supporting a toy-figure to which a reciprocating motion in the verticai direc tion is im arted by said mechanism, a hand lever for raking the speed of the driving ing the locking lever 'with the brake-lever.

for the urpose of making both simultane- .5 ously in the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof Lha e sighed my emtive, substantially as end for heme to this specifieation in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ERNST PAUL LEHMANN.

Witnesses: v

HENRY HAsPER,

WOLDEMAR HAUPI. 

